


Further Down the Line

by prototyping



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Drabble, Friendship, Gen, I address the things no one else wants to, Platonic Relationships, Post-Game, genfic, kind of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-28 02:26:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15038630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prototyping/pseuds/prototyping
Summary: It wasn’t something they’d ever really thought about as kids. [Sorey + Mikleo]





	Further Down the Line

“How good’s your memory?” Sorey asked suddenly.

Mikleo paused in his perusal of the bookcase to glance over his shoulder with a puzzled look. “My memory?”

“Yeah. I’m curious -- considering how long-lived seraphim are, do your memories fade at the same rate as humans? Or is something five hundred years ago as easy to remember as something five years ago?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s _that_ drastic,” Mikleo remarked, sounding amused. “I remember our journey with the others pretty well -- the major points, at least. I couldn’t quote entire conversations, but I could tell you what they were about. But I don’t think I remember anything from when we were kids.”

Sorey made a thoughtful sound. “Is that so? What about -- the first time we went hunting on our own? Do you remember that?” It was one of the clearest recollections in his early memory that he could think of -- which probably had something to do with the fact that it had been a major achievement in their eyes at the time, a sort of unofficial coming-of-age test that they had passed together.

There was a pause as Mikleo’s eyes went distant. “...No. I can’t say I do.”

“Hm…” Sorey couldn’t help wondering, abruptly, whether Mikleo would remember _this_ conversation in another several hundred years. It was an innocuous enough question, he’d thought, right up until it stirred an old ache in his chest: the same pang as when he had resolved to purify Maotelus, shoving aside his personal feelings and rationalizing away those of the people who would leave him behind.

Now, though… Now it wasn’t a choice with the positive twist of a future and potential opportunities and a happy ending, he realized. He would die one day, and regardless of whatever that meant for himself afterwards, Mikleo would keep on living without him, again. Just because it was the natural way of things.

It wasn’t something they’d ever really thought about as kids. The difference in their mortalities had been a background detail, something far off and unimportant and irrelevant, a minor little thing that they would figure out how to circumvent one day because they were best friends and best friends didn’t leave each other behind, and surely life wasn’t so unfair as to deny them that.

“Sorey?”

He broke from his thoughts to find Mikleo watching him, his expression ever so slightly skewed enough to suggest concern. Sorey realized his own face was pinched with a frown, almost a wince, and he quickly dropped it as he shook his head and laughed. “Sorry. Spaced out there.” Pretending not to notice his friend’s lingering gaze, he turned on his heel to busy himself on the opposite side of the library, where he would hopefully drown out those unwanted thoughts.

“Hey.”

Sorey stopped and turned back. “You’d better not be thinking anything stupid,” Mikleo remarked, his smile crooked as he shifted his weight. “I couldn’t forget you if I tried. You’re just my cross to bear.”

It wasn’t quite a laugh that made it past Sorey’s grin, but it was close enough. “Nah. I know you won’t.”

That was the problem.


End file.
